Massachusetts Man Sentenced to Four Years for Possessing Child Pornography

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that William Duffy, 59, of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was sentence today in U.S. District Court by Judge George Z. Singal to four years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release for possessing child pornography. Duffy was also ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution to one of the victims of sexual abuse. Duffy pleaded guilty to the charge on February 23, 2016.

According to court records, in May 2015, deputies with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant for Duffy’s laptop computer at his Sebago residence. A forensic analysis revealed 4,475 still images and 261 video files depicting minors being sexually abused, many depicting adults abusing prepubescent minors and infants.

In determining sentence, Judge Singal noted that possessing child pornography encourages the sexual abuse of children and elevates the trauma that victims of sexual abuse have already endured: “Simply creating a market for child pornography guarantees that more children will be abused. ... The impact of early childhood abuse never goes away. It’s there all the time. We have a population ... of [people] who live day by day knowing that the videos and photographs of their abuse are not only being distributed but are continuing to fuel sexual gratification of people who view them. And that never ends. ... It’s always there and will be there even after they are dead. That is their legacy to posterity.”

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit.